Jon Dell Jaramillo is a survivor, scholar, artist, and passionate educator whose extraordinary journey exemplifies resilience, creativity, and dedication to social justice. After surviving a life-altering AIDS diagnosis in 1992, Jon embraced life with renewed urgency and discovered powerful creative expression through writing, film, and translation. Returning to academia as a non-traditional student, he earned a BA at age 50 and a PhD in Romance Languages and Literatures at age 61 from the University of Oregon, where he specialized in Translation Studies and queer Latin American narratives.
Jon’s research is groundbreaking, bridging queer studies, contagion theory, and Latin American life narratives to critically examine how marginalized bodies and identities navigate oppressive power structures. His award-winning dissertation, Viral Bodies: AIDS and Other Contagions in Latin American Life Narrative, challenges conventional historical narratives, offering nuanced perspectives on queer resilience within transnational contexts. As author of the influential Queering Translation Manifesto, Jon advocates for culturally sensitive, politically engaged approaches to translation, exemplified by his published translation of Michel Estrada's The Neurosurgeon. The most recent books I have published is the original memoir by Margarita Moreno Zárate called De primera fuente. I translated the book as From the Source, and we also released a bilingual edition. All three are available on Amazon. I am embarking on a new translation project currently title, El hombre que sembró una selva, expected to be completed and ready for publication by December 2025.
Steadfastly committed to empowering students and fostering critical thinking, Jon actively promotes equity, inclusion, and LGBTQIA rights in his teaching and community engagement at the University of Oregon. His work reflects a profound belief in global queer liberation, embodying a lifelong fight for human rights and dignity for all.
In January 2026, the School of Global Studies and Languages gave me the opportunity to launch Foundations of AI Literacy and Ethics (GSL 298), an interdisciplinary gateway course open to students from all majors. This 4-credit course that will satisfy core education requirements introduces the essentials of artificial intelligence—what it is, how it works, and how it is transforming society—while emphasizing ethical reflection, authorship integrity, and global perspectives. No technical background is required; students will gain the tools to critically evaluate AI, understand its risks and possibilities, and practice responsible use in academic, professional, and creative settings.
Through lectures, applied workshops, case studies, and optional Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) exchanges with partner universities abroad, students will explore urgent topics such as bias, privacy, surveillance, transparency, and international regulation. The course culminates in a capstone project where teams design ethical responses to real-world AI challenges, preparing graduates to navigate—and shape—the rapidly evolving AI-mediated world.
